Page 3 Current Events
On November 22, a panel of four journal-ists, all representing different aspects of thefield, discussed contemporary media issues inthe Tabler classroom space. The emergence of blogs, the recent CIA-gate controversy, and theperpetual conflict between ethics and the bot-tom line were discussed.The panel members all have had exten-sive experience with the multifaceted world of the media in print, broadcast, and electronicforms. Stony Brook University alumnus JoeCaponi, who is the editor of the Channel WebNetwork (www.channelweb.com); Carl Corry,editor in chief of Long Island Business News andregional director of the Society of ProfessionalJournalists; and Dustin Herlich of the Suffolk Standard participated. In addition, besides thepresence of these electronic and print journal-ists, there also was the presence of someonefrom the broadcast media universe. Ernst Star,formerly affiliated with television news inPhiladelphia, and who now is a professor atHofstra University as well as the assistantdirector of communications at Suffolk Community College’s Selden campus, was theretoo. Issues that all too often afflict the presswere addressed. The battle between thereporters’ civic responsibility to inform thepublic and work for the greater good and theneed to increase circulation. The editors’ needto choose what will sell more: sensationalism,sex and scandal or important, pressing topicsthat need to be covered for the public welfare.The public’s right to know versus the safety of individuals in harm’s way. What is news? Whatis a reporter-could it be someone off the streetwho has a computer and a connection to theInternet, and who is consequently able to startblogging about topics and events? What is thestate of the first amendment? All these ques-tions were raised at this panel discussion,where members of the media analysis classaudience of Norm Prusslin, assistant director of media at Stony Brook University, were invited toask questions pertaining to the press. Since allof the men on the panel were all familiar withthe inner struggles that go on within a news-room, they were aware of the dilemmas oftenfaced by editors. With decreasing readership,hence decreased circulation, newspapers oftenhave to make ambivalent editorial decisions tostay afloat financially.Covering something scandalous butunnecessary for the public to know to assist inmaking better, informed citizens is, unfortu-nately, the easy way to keep papers in the black.Shark attacks, sexual exploits, and the like areincreasingly headline grabbers and cover sto-ries. Yellow journalism has become a trend inboth the broadcast (especially the twenty-fourhour news cable networks) and print media. Asa result, intelligent, investigative reportingthat has the potential to improve the public’sunderstanding of critical issues is frequentlydelegated to page fourteen. While tabloid jour-nalism has existed for a while (back in the daysof Nellie Bly, who used sensationalism in a waythat it’s rarely used- to benefit the public; shedid undercover reporting in the nineteenth cen-tury), lately it has replaced journalism inplaces where journalism once existed.Journalists like the late Peter Jennings, whowas the last of the Big Three newsmen (DanRather and Tom Brokaw were the other two),were the few who dared to have integrity at atime when integrity among journalists wasdiminishing. Now that these role models formany have moved on for a variety of reasons,there has been the possibility of a journalisticvoid.Will reporters in the twenty-first cen-tury, a time when media conglomerates caremore about money than media ethics, believe inintegrity? This question comes to mind whenpondering the latest reporter debacles, namelythe leak of the identity of a CIA agent byreporters. New York Times reporter JudyMiller was jailed for being in contempt of court,and no shield law could protect her when sherefused to name the source of her informationabout the identity of the CIA agent ValeriePlame, the wife of an ambassador who was crit-ical of Bush. Shield laws, according to the FirstAmendment Center, are important in protectingthe confidentiality of sources.“Although the privileges recognized bythe federal and state courts and created bythe state legislatures vary…, most generallyprovide that the privileged information can-not be obtained unless the party seeking theinformation can establish that the informa-tion is highly material and relevant to thecase at issue, compelling need exists … , orthat it cannot be obtained by other means(www.firstamendmentcenter.org).”Additionally, another prestigious journal-ist, Robert Novak of the Washington Post, is theone who first leaked the identity of Ms. Plame.So two questions for the contemporary pressarise. Will courts find more reasons that arecompelling enough to force journalists to revealthe identity of their sources, consequently lim-iting journalists’ access to sources in thefuture? Will the concept of “do no harm,”encoded in the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (which can be found atwww.spj.org), be ignored again in the name of beating the competition, even if it jeopardizes alife (like Ms.Plame’s, for instance)?Journalists must now, more than ever, beethical. Journalists must also be aware of hownew court rulings, like the Hosty case, poten-tially limit their first amendment rights.According to the Student Press Law Center, in“the Hosty vs. Carter case, the Seventh CircuitCourt of Appeals said the Supreme Court’s 1988Hazelwood decision limiting high school stu-dents’ free expression rights could extend tocollege” newspapers too. Journalism educatorsare appealing this, wanting the Supreme Courtto rule on the Hosty decision. Student journal-ists will be the journalists of the future, and sowhen their rights are suppressed, this is of con-cern to the journalism community as a whole.All these fascinating issues affectingand afflicting the contemporary press were dis-cussed in this media ethics forum. This wasmoderated by myself, the president of the cam-pus chapter of the Society of ProfessionalJournalists; and Mike Nevradakis, the formerpresident. It was, in many opinions, a greatsuccess. More forums are planned for thefuture. If you’re interested in journalism,check us out: we meet every Friday at 3 in theColors Café, located in the basement of theStudent Union, down the hall from Beauty andBrains.
November 22 Media Forum
ByLauraPositano
CHANNELWEB.COMEDITORJOECAPONI,Courtesy of buskinjournalism.org
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